O.T. War Games???

IA Roy · Dec 8, 2015

I think it was last Wednesday just after sunset on the way home from Cedar Falls, I saw 18 different jet contrails to the west. I can't imagine that many jets in the air over Iowa at one time. The sky was very clear and the air very calm at ground level. They were far enough from each other that I doubt I was seeing multiple partial contrails from a single plane. Are there a lot more planes in the air over Iowa than I can imagine?
How far can you see contrails in these conditions? Hundreds of miles?

Andy Martin · Dec 8, 2015

My buddy in the Air National Guard says they used to do overnight encounters over Nebraska and Iowa against the Air Force regularly. Of course he claimed the seasoned pilots of the Guard usually won out over the USAF.

Busflyer · Dec 8, 2015

Check out flight aware.com. You'd be surprised just ho many airplanes are in the air at any given time.

Cooter143 · Dec 8, 2015

Air traffic has been really busy lately, I've noticed a lot more activity overhead the last couple of nights. I would assume part of that is because of the approaching Christmas season. Conditions for contrails also vary, so the atmosphere may have been more suitable than normal leaving more tracks in the sky.

Greg1959 · Dec 8, 2015

Joshua??

Cooter143 · Dec 8, 2015

(quoted from post at 00:05:12 12/09/15) Joshua??

Is that a Biblical reference?

Greg1959 · Dec 8, 2015

Cooter- No, just a reference to a cult classic mive from the 1980's....WarGames....
Poke here

CenTex Farmall · Dec 8, 2015

Were the contrails lined up Southwest/Northeast? The eastern half of Iowa is getting close enough to O'hare that center controllers are already sequencing them for arrival or funneling them out after departure. It depends a lot on which runways are in use and if there are any weather events/storms in the general area.

I've been shut out of DFW before when coming in from the north and we had to go all the way to Lubbock or Midland area to sequence in with traffic from the west coast. Planes were bunched as tight as they could be for a couple hundred miles.

John M · Dec 9, 2015

Shall we play a game?

Steamboat · Dec 9, 2015

What amazes me is a tea party friend who thinks that we should disband all government agencies and use taxes to build up our military. However when seeing contrails from jets, he is convinced that it is "poison" that the government is disbursing in our air. Some folks are beyond reasoning with.

O.T. War Games???

IA Roy

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Andy Martin

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Busflyer

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Cooter143

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Greg1959

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Cooter143

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Greg1959

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CenTex Farmall

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John M

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Steamboat

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